76.2% matric pass: Modest increase doesn’t mean celebrate, say politicians

A high drop-out rate, too little focus on early development, and persistent inequality. The matric results for 2016 have been met with varying degrees of approval from political parties today.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that the country’s overall matric pass rate for the class of 2016 stands at 76.2% without the percentage attained by progressed learners.

With progressed learners, the national pass rate attained stands at 72.5%. Progressed pupils are those who fail a grade for two consecutive years and are then promoted to the next grade.

Motshekga revealed the figures at the Vodacom Dome in Midrand this evening.

She said the pass rate was an improvement from last year’s performance with 442 672 candidates having passed, which was the second largest number in history.

“For the past six years, we have noted that the national senior certificate pass rate has consistently been above the 70% threshold. The Class of 2016 must be commended for maintaining this trend. They are the largest cohort in the history of basic education to sit for any national senior certificate examination in the country. With the Class of 2016 being the largest cohort the country has ever registered, a possibility existed that learner performance could drop.”

The minister said this did not happen – thanks to the dedication and commitment of teachers, governing bodies, parents, the South African society at large, the provincial education departments and the class of 2016.

Motshekga said the 2016 class was the ninth cohort of pupils to sit for exams and the third to write the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement-aligned national senior certificate.

The total number of candidates who registered for exams was 828 020 – 674 652 full-time and 153 368 part-time candidates.

Of these, 610 178 full-time and 107 793 part-time candidates sat for exams.

She said quality assessment body Umalusi had declared the exams “fair, valid and credible”.

The minister said the release of the results were approved but results for pupils who have been implicated in the leaked mathematics question paper 2 would be withheld pending the finalisation of the investigations.

The number of pupils qualifying for admission to bachelor studies at universities stands at 162 374; the number of passes with diploma is 179 619, the number of passes with higher certificate is 100 486.

She said 158 160 distinctions were achieved in 2016.

“In the 12 key subjects (including mathematics, physical science, accounting, economics, business studies), the total number of distinctions increased to 65 154 in 2016, from 63 348 in 2015,” Motshekga said.

However, in a statement released before Motshekga announced the results, Equal Education was critical of the pass rate saying excessive pressure was brought to bear on pupils, teachers, principals, and education bureaucrats for the sake of the annual shindig that is the national matric results announcement.

“Early learning is currently crippled by difficulties including overcrowded classrooms and lack of support for early childhood development and foundation phase (Grade R to Grade 3) teachers. Shockingly, there is persistent overinvestment in Grade 12, when the largest investment is needed in the early school grades.” the organisation said.

Reacting to the results, political parties congratulated the class of 2016, but warned that there were challenges in the education sector.

Collaboration

ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Free State’s achievement was no small feat, especially for a largely rural province that continues to struggle with disparities in terms of resources, skills and prevailing socioeconomic challenges.

“While there have been some notable improvements in KwaZulu-Natal in particular, this province together with the Eastern Cape and Limpopo constitutes almost 60% of all candidates for the national senior certificate. The ANC therefore welcomes the commitment by the department of basic education to pay particular attention to the education outputs in these provinces.

“The Eastern Cape, in particular, deserves special mention and it is our hope that with dedicated attention and support, the province will continue to post improvement in its education outcomes and turn the tide on its performance in this area.”

He said the ANC attributed this year’s achievements to the collaborative approach adopted by government to include the private sector, civil society, governing bodies, the educators, parents and pupils in the quest to improve learning outcomes.

Long way to go

Economic Freedom Fighters national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said: “The department of basic education still has a long way to go and its chest-beating exercise does not help if we consider the entire generation of these learners from 12 years ago. The tragedy of our education system in this country lies here and is the real mark of its continued failure of the young people.

“When the 2016 matric cohort started Grade 2, there were 1.1 million of them, but only 662 612 sat for the matriculation exam.”

“Taking the number of those who passed, which is 442 672, the real pass rate for 2016 is not 76.2 %, but is in fact 40.9%.The drop-out rate remains high and the majority of the youth who have been left out in the past 12 years cannot be accounted for,” Ndlozi said.

Pinch of salt is needed

IFP Youth Brigade national chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said: “Rural schools continue to overstretch themselves to keep up with fully resourced schools in urban schools; the learning field remains uneven. Rural provinces such as Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo have the most under-resourced and poorest schools, and consistently record pass rates well below the national average.”

He said those hailing from rural schools in the main will bear the brutal brunt of the expensive cost to study in institutions of higher learning.

“Thus these results must be taken with a pinch of salt because the blanket quantitative pass rates reported nationally and for each province, conceal deeper patterns of inequality thus compromising on quality.The ripple effects are reaching and present serious implications for the future,” Hlengwa said.

Poor performance

DA spokesperson Gavin Davis said it was tempting to interpret the modest improvement in the matric pass rate, from 70.7% to 72.5% as a sign that we are moving in the right direction, particularly after last year’s precipitous 5% drop.

“But to do so would be to ignore the most significant aspect of the matric results, and that is the continued poor performance in the big three provinces of the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, which obtained 59.3%, 62.5% and 66.4% respectively.”

He said these three provinces, which compromise 54% of this year’s matric pupils, lagged far behind Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, the North West, Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Free State.

Davis said it was no coincidence that the worst performing provinces in matric 2016 were those where the South African Democratic Teacher’s Union was most dominant.

“Unless Minister Motshekga deals decisively with Sadtu, these provinces will remain perennial poor performers,” Davis said adding that the standardisation process carried out by Umalusi should be done correctly.

On the eve of the release of matric results, Davis wrote an open letter questioning the standardisation process conducted by Umalusi, who responded today.

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	Msindisi Fengu Journalist City Press p: +27 11 7139001 w: www.citypress.co.za  e: msindisi.fengu@citypress.co.za
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